Are antidepressants safe? A new umbrella review of observational studies suggests they are, but we need more accurate data

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Andrea Cipriani and Anneka Tomlinson scrutinise a brand new umbrella review of the associations between antidepressants and adverse health outcomes, which suggests that antidepressants are safe for most people who experience mental health difficulties.

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Is too much screen time bad for our children? Perhaps, but how much do we really know?

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David Turgoose explores a systematic review of reviews that looks at the effects of screen time on the health and well-being of children and adolescents. The review found that higher levels of screen time were related to some physical and mental health concerns, such as poor diet, obesity and depression.

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Inclusion health: a new perspective on health inequalities?

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Noortje Uphoff writes her debut elf blog on a recent paper in The Lancet, which looks at what works in inclusion health; providing an overview of effective interventions for marginalised and excluded populations.

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Improving outcomes for people with first episode psychosis

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Elwira Lubos summarises a recent review of reviews looking at the evidence for improving outcomes in first-episode psychosis.

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Risk factors and peripheral biomarkers for schizophrenia spectrum disorders

This 'umbrella review' aimed to systematically appraise the meta-analyses of observational studies on risk factors and peripheral biomarkers for schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Marcus Munafo considers the findings of a systematic review of meta-analyses of observational studies, which looks at risk factors and peripheral biomarkers for psychotic disorders on the schizophrenia spectrum.

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Digital health for young people with mental health problems: silver bullet or red herring?

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Victoria Betton on a recent meta review of digital health interventions for children and young people with mental health problems. The question is, does the evidence square with her experience of what actually happens in practice?

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Mental health of prisoners: have we reached a state of crisis?

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Ian Cummins highlights the increased risk of all-cause mortality, suicide, self-harm, violence and victimisation in prisoners. He welcomes a recent review of reviews which contains clinical, policy and research recommendations.

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Mental health crisis care: clinical and cost effectiveness of models of care

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Caroline Leah publishes her debut blog on crisis care for people with mental health issues, which concludes that better quality evidence is needed to support the overall effectiveness of crisis care interventions.

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Exercise for depression in adults with rheumatic diseases

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In her first blog for the Musculoskeletal Elf, Pamela Andrews a sports therapist and a PhD candidate at Glasgow Caledonian University discusses a recent systematic reiew of meta-analyses evaluating the effectiveness of exercise for depression in adults with arthritis, fibromyalgia and other rheumatic diseases.

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Mixed effectiveness of population-level interventions to reduce alcohol consumption and harm

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Alcohol is responsible for approximately 2.5 million deaths worldwide every year, making it the third largest cause of preventable death after tobacco and obesity. The economic burden to the UK has been estimated in the region of £20 billion per year, comprising the NHS bill, costs to employers and policing costs amongst other things. Reducing harmful [read the full story…]